The present invention relates generally to shower or spray heads for connection to a water supply to produce a spray of water from a plurality of outlet nozzles in the head.
A basic shower head has a single inlet supply from hot and cold water sources, which are mixed to produce the desired water temperature. Variations on this standard shower or spray head have been proposed in the past, for example oscillating or pulsating shower heads which produce a pulsating outlet spray, providing a "massage" sensation to the user's skin.
It has, in the past, been considered to be invigorating and stimulating to switch temperatures, say from hot to cold, when bathing, for example moving from a hot bath or sauna to a cold shower. My prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,091 is directed to a pulsating hot and cold shower head which provides alternating pulses of hot and cold water. Although this does have an invigorating effect, most pulsating shower heads are relatively complex in design and involve internal moving parts which are liable to malfunction due to build up of minerals from the water in the internal rotor. If the shower head should freeze during operation, the user may be surprised with a sudden change in operating temperature. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide an equivalent stimulating effect in a shower head without requiring internal moving parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,109 of Koolnis describes a therapeutic shower in which a first set of parallel spray tubes are connected to a hot water supply and a second set of parallel spray tubes are connected to a cold water supply. The two sets of spray tubes are assembled as a unit in adjacent pipe layers so that combined hot and cold jet sprays are directed onto the user.